Graduate Brianna Gives Back

The global pandemic, resulting lay-offs, and the persistent high cost of housing has stretched Sacramento’s safety net tighter than ever.

At Women’s Empowerment, sisterhood is woven into the very fabric of the safety net we provide, making it strong and supportive. Though more than 150 of our graduates have been laid off since the pandemic began, our graduate, Breanna, has been fighting to keep her Women’s Empowerment sisters from falling back into homelessness. You can help.

Two years ago, Breanna was homeless after leaving an abusive relationship. She was working long hours as a manager in the fast food industry and began using drugs to stay awake. Then she found out she was pregnant. She immediately stopped using drugs and diligently sought out resources, eventually coming to Women’s Empowerment. After graduating from our program, she was hired as Operations Manager at ARC Solar and found a safe home for her and her baby boy.

When the pandemic hit, Breanna asked her employer to donate care packages for our graduates who had lost their jobs. She worked with her employer to create a career path in the solar industry for our graduates – we now have graduates training in a well-paying career field, with an employer partner ready to hire!

“I’m just a normal person, I’m no different from anyone else,” Breanna said. “I just keep asking myself, what’s the next glass ceiling I can break? I want to hire women in this growing industry.”

Thanks to quick implementation of sanitation and social distancing protocols, we have continued to be a safety net while expanding our paid job training programs. Women are working with our Employment Specialists and in our computer lab to connect to employment and training. Our Housing Specialist is working with families to secure a home while our Social Workers are connecting women to community resources, and ensuring they have basic necessities such as masks, sanitizer, grocery cards, cleaning supplies, diapers, transportation assistance, and more as needed.

And they know they have fellow graduates like Breanna advocating for them.